The Battle of Stoneskull

I'd better write it up before I forget what happened...

Grim left Graywall, taking Merred Nastor and his goblin bowsmith prisoner with him. Verschoyle stayed in Graywall for three more days in order to use the resources of Tharrad Katarn's magical laboratory to craft himself a headband of intellect +2. While there, Verschoyle met Burr, a bugbear scout from Darguun, and reluctantly agreed to let him join the party. When Verschoyle had finished making his headband, Tharrad Katarn teleported him and Burr to the army's camp, where Grim, travelling for three days overland, had just arrived. Tharrad gave Verschoyle a magic scroll that might help him out in a moment of need, and told him that he might be able to get him into a circle of wizards of which he was a part.

After some discussion, the party opted for a full-frontal attack on Stoneskull. Verschoyle opened the battle by casting fireball into the middle of the village, and continued to rain magic onto the army as it approached. While the two armies entered melee against each other, Jalahand himself personally took on the party, but they killed him.

As soon as Jalahand was dead, the mind flayer that the party had defeated the previous week used the opportunity to strike while they were weakened. He appeared, along with a shadowy version of an otyugh (the shadow plane counterpart of one of his otyugh minions). The party dispatched them fairly easily, with the help of Tharrad Katarn's scroll, which turned out to summon some hell-hounds. Verschoyle commented that he now knows Tharrad Katarn's alignment: hell-hounds are Lawful Evil, so Tharrad Katarn is presumably (although not necessarily) the same.

With Jalahand and his lieutants defeated, some of his army fled but the majority surrendered. The battle was over quickly enough that there were only a dozen or so goblin casualties on each side, although all of Jalahand's ogres had been killed by Verschoyle's fireballs. No major NPCs on the party's side were killed (although Kardash has a few more battle-scars than before).

The party spotted a mysterious figure observing the battle through a spyglass.

The victors went into Jalahand's throne room, where Burr attempted to use his thief-like abilities to open the ogre mage's magically trapped treasure chests and fell victim to a phantasmal killer trap. Zurga opened the other chest by summoning a fiendish monkey (which got killed by a lightning trap). The chests contained lots of money. Grim also acquired a cloak of charisma +2 which Jalahand had been wearing, and Verschoyle took the periapt of health that had belonged to the mind flayer.

The party and their army spent the night in Stoneskull, with Grim keeping the peace between the two goblin armies. In the morning, they found a note left in Jalahand's cave next to where Verschoyle had been sleeping. The note was from an agent of the Daughters of Sora Kell (the rulers of Droaam) endorsing Grim as the new warlord but specifying that the party might have to serve for a time in the Droaam army to prove their loyalty. (DM railroading and an excuse to use Heroes of Battle? Not at all...)

The next day, Grim embarked on a tour of his new kingdom, while Verschoyle began work on constructing a flesh golem out of the corpses of the fallen goblins. (I'm not sure what Zumm was doing during this time; I'm assuming he either went with Grim on the tour or spent the time in quiet meditation.) Grim told his new subjects that the taxation would be reduced and that they could count on his protection in exchange for their loyalty.

When we eventually resume the campaign, it will be a month or so later. Grim's rule of the region will be stable and Verschoyle's flesh golem will be finished.

Rules clarifications

There are some areas of the rules that we don't really understand and that therefore detract from the game, either by slowing it down due to arguments, or due to hard feelings arising from disagreements over the rules, or because where I am unsure of the rules I will generally err on he side of giving the advantage to the players, which may make some challenges too easy. I will try to read up on these rules and clarify them before we start playing again. I hope when we next play, everyone can be on the same page, especially with regards to things that may have changed between second and third edition.

Flurry of Blows

There had been some confusion as to when a monk (i.e. Imre's character) could use the flurry of blows, and whether this required a full attack action or whether he could use it after moving. I didn't understand it either, but I have just read up on it here.

When unarmored, a monk may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy. When doing so, she may make one extra attack in a round at her highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a -2 penalty, as does each other attack made that round. The resulting modified base attack bonuses are shown in the Flurry of Blows Attack Bonus column on Table: The Monk. This penalty applies for 1 round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity the monk might make before her next action. When a monk reaches 5th level, the penalty lessens to -1, and at 9th level it disappears. A monk must use a full attack action to strike with a flurry of blows.

So if you move and attack, you can't use the flurry of blows. When moving and attacking, or when making an attack of opportunity, a monk only gets a single attack, just like everyone else.

Attacks of opportunity

The rules on attacks of opportunity are here.

An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack at your full attack bonus. You cannot use it to cast a spell, to make multiple attacks (including flurry of blows), to move, or to fire a ranged weapon.

You threaten any squares that you can make a melee attack into. Since we are not using a grid with squares, you basically threaten anything you could attack without moving first.

If you are wielding a reach weapon (such as a longspear) you can make a melee attack at 10ft distance, and you therefore threaten opponents up to 10ft from you.

You provoke an attack of opportunity when you move out of, or perform certain actions in, a threatened square. Moving up to attack someone does not normally provoke an AoE, since you are moving into but not out of a threatened square. However, if your opponent has a 10ft reach (either because they are Large sized or because they are wielding a reach weapon), you do provoke an AoE because you are moving from one threatened square to another as you approach the enemy.

Contrary to what I had previously thought, charging does not provoke an attack of opportunity. (Bull rush, and most other special attacks, do.) The SRD has tables summarizing which standard, move and full-round actions provoke AoEs.

If there are any other rules you can think of that we've been having trouble with, please let me know and I will clarify them before we next start playing.

Timeline update

Sypheros 1	Party encounters and defeats an Athach. Party attacks one of Jalahand's trading parties, killing most of it and taking some prisoners.
Sypheros 3	Party arrives back at Castle Granis with prisoners. All of the 20 original trainees are now 2nd-level Warriors. The trench in front of the castle is complete.
Sypheros 4	Zurga escapes a forced marriage and shelters in a cave. The party defeats two behirs in order to rescue her.
Sypheros 5	The party sets off for Garduk in order to depose Kardash.
Sypheros 6	Thurzar arrives back at Castle Granis in the battle-wagon with all the goods he was sent for and a gnoll siege engineer but without Merred Nastor.
Sypheros 7	The party arrives at Garduk, defeats Kardash and begins mustering an army to attack Jalahand.
Sypheros 8	The party leaves Garduk, leading a large army.
Sypheros 10	The party and goblin army arrives at the rendezvous point but the army from Castle Granis does not arrive as scheduled.
Sypheros 11	The army from Castle Granis arrives, having been delayed because Thurzar spent an extra day in Graywall looking for Merred Nastor.
Sypheros 12	The orc chieftain of a goblin village near to where the army is camped offers another unit of goblins if the party will rid his village of a disease. The party investigates and defeats a mind flayer and his minions, but Ug is killed. Grim and Verschoyle set off for Graywall with Ug's body to attempt to reincarnate him.
Sypheros 13	Grim and Verschoyle meet Jalahand's gnoll reinforcements on their way to Stoneskull. They manage to convince them that Jalahand is already dead and to return home.
Sypheros 14	Grim and Verschoyle arrive at Graywall with Ug's body, and take it to a gnoll druid that the mercenaries had recommended. However, Ug's soul refused to return. Verschoyle befriends Graywall's most powerful wizard (or at least its most powerful commonly-known wizard), Tharrad Katarn. Grim and Verschoyle also managed to locate the cleric Merred Nastor who had gone missing on his shopping trip to Graywall. A goblin bowmaker had noticed his poorly-concealed Silver Flame symbol and tipped off the arena guards. He was due to be executed in the arena the next day. Verschoyle enters the arena in order to fight on his behalf and spends the night hin the cells. Meanwhile, Grim kidnaps the goblin bowmaker.
Sypheros 15	In the arena, Verschoyle defeats the manticore that was due to kill Merred Nastor. A bugbear scout from Darguun introduces himself to Grim and Verschoyle. Verschoyle and Tharrad Katarn continue to swap spells.

I don't remember how long you decided to stay in Graywall for. I think Verschoyle was crafting some kind of magic item using Katarn's workshop, but I can't remember what it was. In any case, the tomorrow's session will begin with Grim and Verschoyle leaving Graywall to rejoin their army.

Creating a flesh golem

The rules on creating a flesh golem say that it requires human corpses, but I am going to rule that the corpses of any humanoids will do. (The mind flayer's golems were made of bits of goblins.) However, if Small creatures such as goblins are used you need twice as many different corpses (twelve rather than six).

Constructing the body takes 20 days and requires a fairly easy Heal or Craft (leatherworking) check. Since bookbinding involves both sewing and working with leather, I am going to rule that Verschoyle can use Craft (bookbinding) instead of Craft (leatherworking) at a -5 penalty (like with Grim using weaponsmithing to make a siege engine).

Even though it's made of flesh rather than metal, a flesh golem can be repaired using the Eberron repair spells.

Evil filthy mind flayer adventure

The army was en route to Jalahand's village, passing close to a tiny goblin hamlet. The hamlet's orc chieftain rode up to the PCs and promised his warriors (one extra unit of goblins) to help in their fight if they would help him remove the cause of the disease that was devastating his village.

The PCs traced the diseased stream back to an underground cave where piles of rotting animal and goblin corpses formed a habitat for two otyughs and two carrion crawlers. Further into the cave complex they found a mind flayer and its minions, a wyvern and a flesh golem.

They defeated the mind flayer and its minions, although the mind flayer itself managed to get away by using a psionic teleportation power. In the mind flayer's lair they found another half-complete flesh golem, along with a book of instructions for making such golems.

Ug died in the battle with the flesh golem. Grim and Verschoyle hurried to Graywall with his body, leaving Zumm in charge of the army. On the way they encountered the gnoll reinforcements on their way to Jalahand's village, bluffed them into thinking that Jalahand was dead, and paid them off to go back to Graywall.

In Graywall they found a gnoll druid who could reincarnate Ug, but his soul refused to return. While there, Verschoyle made friends with a tiefling wizard (whose name, I have just decided, was Tharrad Katarn). He also rescued Merred Nastor, the Silver Flame cleric, by fighting in the arena on his behalf.

Last night's action and Tom's new character

Last night's side-quest turned out to be a bit more challenging than I'd intended, and Ug got killed (again). But he died as a good Gatekeeper Druid, having just defeated a dreaded Mind Flayer. Grim and Verschoyle took his body to Graywall and asked a gnoll druid to reincarnate him, but his spirit did not want to return.

However, a bugbear scout on a mission from the goblinoid empire of Darguun has shown an interest in travelling with the party in order to find out about the new warlord of the region.

I've been reading the rules for monster characters and it turns out I got the rules slightly wrong. To get the effective character level (ECL) of a monster character you add together it's level adjustment, class levels, _and racial hit dice_. Racial hit dice effectively count as levels in the 'bugbear' class.

So a bugbear rogue with ECL 8 would be a level 4 rogue:

3 racial levels + 4 rogue levels + 1 level adjustment = ECL 8

For the purposes of gaining feats and ability score increases, you use your total hit dice (racial and class) but not the level adjustment. So your rogue has 7 HD, giving it three feats and a +1 increase to one ability score. You also have 7 HD for the purposes of magical effects that depend on hit dice.

For the purposes of XP, you add up the racial hit dice, class levels, and level adjustment. So for XP purposes you are a level 8 character.

The value of your starting equipment would also depend on ECL I think. So if I recall correctly you can have up to 27,000gp worth of equipment, no more than 1/4 of which can be spent on a single item.

I have the sourcebooks with extra character options in them here in case you want to borrow them to look at options.

As for the mission your character is on... how about you've been sent by Darguun to look for an ancient Dhakaani artifact that you think is somewhere in the region? This gives you a reason to stay in the area and also opens up a nice 'treasure hunt' story arc.

Intelligence report: Jalahand's village

This is the layout of Jalahand's village (according to what Zumm saw).

1. Gate.  This was guarded by two ogres when Zumm and co. infiltrated the village.
   
2. River outlet, blocked by iron bars.
3. Ordinary huts.  Each is big enough to sleep a couple of ogres or a dozen goblins.
4. Kezda's hut.  Now that Kezda is dead, there is probably nothing special about it.
5. Arena.  A 30ft-wide circle marked by a ring of stones.
6. Crafting area.  A goblin was brewing a potion here.
7. Ground level cave entrance.
8. High-level cave entrance to dire bat lair.  It is 40ft off the ground.
9. Prison.  A stone building sub-divided into cells.
10. Watch tower.  Wooden, 40ft high.  It is liked to the ground by a simple rope pulley lift (powered by an ogre on the ground).

The cliff is 80ft high in the centre, and the hill is 60ft high.  The top of the hill is 350ft from the gate and 725ft from the ground-level cave entrance.  The river is 10ft wide and 3ft deep, and is fast-flowing and cold.